Hogwarts Nights
by alohomorahogwarts
Summary: This is a fanfiction about a girl named Cadence, also known as Cady, who is in her 4th year in Hogwarts and Albus Severus Potter, who is in the same year. The two of them, who by turns tell the story, have some crazy adventures during their time at the well-known school for witches and wizards. I'll try to upload a new chapter every Sunday, so stay tuned!
1. Chapter 1

_Cadence POV:_

It was early in the morning, too early, and I looked at Brighton Pier, which I wasn't going to see for one year. I knew I'd miss it, but I was looking forward to going to Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "We have to go now, honey", said my mother and I nodded. We touched an old, used shoe, which was our portkey to bring us to London. For a moment, we both had a weird feeling, and after some seconds, we landed in a public toilet in the King's Cross Station. We tried to sneak out of it without anyone noticing, but it was not that easy, as my mother was not even wearing Muggle clothes. But eventually we managed to get to the platforms 9 and 10. How could the Muggles not notice that today the train station was crowded with lots of people in weird clothes? Or did they just not care? This was a question that always made me think, but maybe the Ministry of Magic did some spells, I didn't know.

"Cady!" I heard a familiar voice yelling. I turned around and saw Jayden running towards me, a boy I had been friends with ever since I first came to Hogwarts, even though we were not in the same house: I was a Hufflepuff and he was a Ravenclaw. "How are you?" he asked, with a big smile on his face. "I'm fine, how about you?" I answered. My mother greeted his parents and we all went through the secret gate to platform 9 ¾ together. The platform was already full of students and their parents, hundreds of owls were screaming and everyone was saying goodbye. "Okay then, have a good year, study hard, write letters…" said my mother, the same things that she always said. Jayden and I got into the train together, both holding the cage of our owls in one hand and our luggage in the other. "Let's find the others", he suggested, and I agreed. We walked through the train and looked into every compartment, but we were very slow as the train was packed with people. "Jay, Cady!" we heard a scream, "we're here!" It was the famous Albus Severus Potter, the son of The Chosen One - Harry Potter himself – and his wife Ginny. Albus highfived Jayden to say hello and then hugged me. He had never done that before and for some reason I was very happy that he did it now.

The compartment was already filled with my friends: Diana, my roommate and best friend, Bailey, another close friend of ours, Matthew, who was the genius in our year and Rose, Albus' cousin. We all greeted each other, then Jayden said: "There's not enough roomfor all of us in this compartment, but who cares?" "Cady can sit on my lap", said Albus and laughed. My heart made a huge jump and I asked myself: _Why is he like this, suddenly?_

"It's okay", said Rose, "I'm going to see Leah and the others." They were her friends from Gryffindor. "Okay, greet them from us", said Diana and Rose went away. "How were your holidays, guys?" Jayden asked.

"We were in Brazil, it was pretty nice", Albus answered, "but my sister got sick so that ruined it a bit."

"What did you do in Brazil?" Bailey asked while we could hear a "rich kid" comment from Jayden.

"Well, Dad was invited by the Brazilian Minister for Magic in Brasilia, the capital, and then we went to Rio the Janeiro to do some sight-seeing and enjoy the beach. And what did you guys do?"

"My holidays were not near as interesting as yours, Al", complained Bailey, "we only went to Spain, but it was pretty nice."

"I went so Norway and France to see family, nothing else", Matthew said.

"You probably did some studying too", Jayden suggested.

We laughed and Matthew simply said: "Well, we had to."

"Anyway, I was in Ireland, together with my cousins", Jayden said, "Diana, Cady, what about you?"

"I wasn't even abroad", Diana said with a sad voice, "we visited some friends and family in Cornwall and Birmingham."

"I was in London to see family as well", I said quietly, "and then we did a spontaneous trip so Switzerland."

"Switzerland, that's cool!" Albus said, "I was there too once. What did you do there?"

"Hiking and so on…" I answered. Albus smiled at me and I had a feeling that this could be a good year.


	2. Chapter 2

_Albus POV:_

During the long train ride, it began to rain and our conversations about holidays, school etc. continued and only got better as we approached Hogwarts. "I guess we have to change our clothes now", Matthew said, "The train should arrive at Hogsmeade soon." We all agreed, so Matt, Jayden and I went out of the compartment so that the girls could change their clothes. "Let's go looking for Rose to say hello to the others", I suggested. They agreed so we walked through the train to see if we could find somebody that we knew. Walking around felt good after having sat for the whole the afternoon. While walking through the train, I actually noticed that being a fourth-year felt pretty cool, as we were not the small ones anymore. Matt had found some friends from Hufflepuff so Jayden and I went to Rose alone. We found her compartment with Leah and Mary, her best friends who were also in Gryffindor, and some Slytherins (yes, times have changed since my father's generation): Charlotte, Levi and Scorpius, the son of Draco Malfoy. I liked Scorpius, but I was always a bit worried that he might have a bad influence on Rose, because he was not really that typical 'good boy'. We all greeted each other and talked a little and I tried to be as nice as possible with Scorpius, so he wouldn't be suspicious. "Okay, I guess we have to go back now and change our clothes", I said, "Goodbye, see you later." I smiled at Mary, who seemed to have gotten much prettier since I last saw her, or maybe I had just never noticed how pretty she'd always been.

We went back to our compartment, where Matt was already waiting. "They haven't finished yet", he said. But just after he had spoken, the three girls came out and let us in. "That took a long time", I said and looked at Cady, "but I guess that's just how girls are." She smiled at me and I wondered whether she had always smiled at me like this… probably not. The girls went out of the compartment and we changed into our robes. Shortly after that, the train stopped and we arrived at the train station of Hogsmeade.

We took our luggage and went to the carriages that were led by the thestrals which none of us could see. The ride was not very long but not comfortable, because it was still raining quite heavily. But when we saw Hogwarts castle in the distance, we got really excited.

 _Cadence POV:_

Matt, Diana and I went to the Hufflepuff table together and sat down next to the other fourth-years. Professor McGonagall stood up and went to the Sorting Hat and everyone silenced at once. Nine cute first-years were sorted into Hufflepuff, and to my delight there was zero booing whenever someone was sorted into Slytherin. Maybe this war between the houses was really a thing from the past now. I certainly hoped it, although I didn't have many Slytherin friends. We had dinner and for some reason the Hufflepuffs always had the best time at the dinner table, we were like a family.

Diana, Amy and Selena (my other two roommates) and I discussed the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, which would take place in the United States next summer, and whether England would be able to qualify for it. "We're doing pretty well", Selena said, "We won against Luxembourg and Greece this summer." "Yes, but those are not the most difficult teams in our group: Germany and Finland are far better", I said.

"Okay, when's the next match?" Amy asked.

"I think the next match is against Germany and it's in two weeks", I answered.

"Okay, I hope there'll be a big screen somewhere in the castle", Diana smiled.

Hogwarts had adopted some technology from the Muggle World, to be able to watch important Quidditch Matches and other things of big importance. But otherwise it had pretty much stayed the same and kept its unique traditions, at least that's what my parents told me.

After dinner, McGonagall had a speech and then allowed us to go to our dorms. The Hufflepuff had theirs next to the kitchen, which was great, because we could sometimes sneak in and steal food, but today I wasn't hungry anymore and only wanted to sleep. I was unbelievably glad to be back in my favourite place on earth.


	3. Chapter 3

_Albus POV:_

It was the next morning, people were all eating breakfast in the Great Hall and the owls arrived to bring the post. I didn't get any, but my sister Lily got a letter from my parents, who wished her a good start into her second year at Hogwarts.

"I have to say hello to you from Mum and Dad", Lily said to me, "where's James?"

"I don't know", I said, "but thanks."

I was sitting next to Rose and Daniel, my roommate and best friend.

"Do you know who the Quidditch team captain is this year?" Rose asked.

"I have no idea, I only know it isn't James", I answered, "he was not too happy about it."

"Okay, so it's probably that 7th year, what was his name again?" Daniel said.

Our conversation got interrupted by the prefects of Gryffindor who gave us our timetables.

"Oh, we have potions first", I said. Potions was not my favourite subject, but I quite liked it.

"Together with the Slytherins", Daniel added.

Half an hour later, we were brewing the laugh-inducing potion, a potion that was supposed to make you laugh uncontrollably. We had a great teacher, Professor Cullen, who was a much nicer person than the potion teacher that I was named after, Severus Snape. When first I came to Hogwarts, I had heard quite a few bad things about him and started to worry, why my Dad thought he "was the bravest man he ever knew". I was struggling with my middle-name but then I talked to my parents about it and they told me the whole story: Severus was, like everyone else, only human and had made some big mistakes in his life, but he was not a bad person.

"Professor Cullen, are we going to try out our potions?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"Yes, of course. But if you want to try it out, you will have to concentrate to get it all right, otherwise we will already have patients for Madam Pomfrey on the first day, that's not what we want", Cullen smiled. Of all the people that had worked at Hogwarts when my parents went there, only a few had stayed: Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Binns (who couldn't die because he was a ghost) and of course Hagrid.

At the end of the lesson, Professor Cullen announced, which potion we would try out: "So I've looked at all your results, and I must admit: They turned out very well. Some might still have to wake up from their summer holidays, but most of your potions were excellent. I've decided that we will try out those two: the potions of Charlotte and Scorpius." He put two bottles on the desk.

Daniel rolled his eyes: "Always the Slytherins."

We all laughed: We knew he wasn't serious and although the two houses were still rivals, they didn't hate each other anymore.

"So, who wants to be the first one to try it out?" Cullen asked, "come on, you're most likely going to survive." We all laughed.

"Why not?" Rose said, to my surprise and got up, "I'll try."

For that brave act, she got a round of applause. "Very nice", Cullen said, "which one do you want to try: Scorpius' or Charlotte's potion?"

"Well", Rose said with a smile, "I think I'll go with the one that Scorpius brew, no offense, Charlotte."

"Okay then, let's see if it works", Cullen said, "but only take a small sip."

"Was that too much?" Rose asked after taking a little bit and then already started laughing.

"I guess it was just the right amount", Cullen laughed.

Rose almost fell on the floor and Cullen had to take the bottle so she wouldn't spill it.

We all laughed and Cullen said: "I guess no one will have to take any potion anymore, you're all already laughing."

This small joke definitely was too much for Rose and she fell over. As she was lying on the floor and laughing, I almost felt sorry for her. "How will we able to stop it?" I asked.

"If she doesn't stop after a few minutes, I'll have something that can stop it", he answered and I could tell that he was a bit moved by my worries about my cousin.

"Come on Al, don't spoil it", Scorpius joked but I couldn't help but wonder whether he was actually, at least to some extent, serious.

Rose really did stop laughing after two minutes and we tried out Charlotte's potion on a Slytherin boy. It was quite funny because he started having a hiccup. But Cullen stopped the show because he didn't want his student to struggle in front of the others. Potions class was now over and the Gryffindors now had charms together with the Hufflepuffs. "How was the potion, Rose?", I asked as we were walking through the castle to get to the charms classroom. "Pretty fun, I have to admit", she said. Leah, who was muggle-born, simply commented: "The Muggles have a similar thing, you know. It's called marijuana." We laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

_Cadence POV:_

It was already getting dark outside and I was alone in the girl's bathroom, brushing my teeth. Diana, Amy and Selena were still relaxing in the common room, but I was quite tired and had decided to go to bed early. My day had been quite good: We'd had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, then Herbology together with Gryffindor (Albus and Rose had had to say hello from their parents, as always), and in the afternoon, I'd had Muggle Studies. I looked in the mirror: My long brown hair had some curls; I looked a little too skinny for my age, although I loved eating, and my skin was as pale as the one of a vampire. I was not someone who cared too much about appearance, but of course I sometimes thought about the way I looked: _Maybe I should start using make-up,_ I thought, _I'll ask Selena about it tomorrow._ Selena was the prettiest girl in our year and I didn't say that because she was my friend, it was simply true. She had long black hair, she was half Egyptian, and her skin was really beautiful, just like her dark eyes. But it was not only her appearance that made everyone turn around when she entered the room: She was confident, funny, and always said what she was thinking. She was not a stereotypical Hufflepuff at all, but I sometimes wished I was like her. I went to our room and put on my pyjamas, then I tried to fall asleep, but I got interrupted by Amy and Selena running into our room.

"Are you awake?" Selena said loudly.

"If she wasn't before, she surely would be now" Amy laughed.

I sat up on my bed and asked: "What is going on?"

"Something really cool: This weekend, there will be the first house party of this school year, and it'll be here in Hufflepuff."

"Okay…" I couldn't really see what was so cool about that. Last year, we had started to go on house parties occasionally, but I had never had that much fun there…

"We were asked to help with the organisation!" Selena's eyes were full of excitement.

"Okay, sure", I answered and still couldn't really share her enthusiasm.

Amy smiled: "This year, house parties will be much more fun. We're fourth-years and we can bring our own ideas and decide what the party could look like. We could organise a contest or something!" She knew that I loved all kind of competitions, just like her.

"That sounds nice", I said, "can we talk about it tomorrow?"

"Sure", Amy said, "I think I'll go to sleep now too."

While falling asleep, I was thinking about the year that was lying ahead of us: It was typical that the Hufflepuffs had to organise the first house parties. The other houses, especially Gryffindor were too lazy to organise it in the first week, and they wanted to have the ultimate party at the end and not the ordinary one in the beginning. But I was eager to not make this party ordinary: Maybe we really could do some kind of contest, and even organise a good DJ.

The next morning, it was raining quite heavily.

"Are they serious about this weather?" Selena complained, "it's September! September is supposed to be warm and nice!"

"We live in Scotland", Amy reminded her, "you'll have to deal with some rain from time to time…"

"That's a nice way of saying it", Diana laughed.

"At least we don't have any subject outside today", I said.

"That's right", Amy smiled, "are you looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts? We're having that with the Gryffindors this year."

"Totally", Diana answered, "it'll be amazing, as always."

Defence Against the Dark Arts was our favourite subject, mainly because the teacher was so impressive. He was originally from Germany and had joined The Order of the Phoenix some years before the Battle of Hogwarts after moving from Berlin to London. Albus' father didn't know him personally back then, as Albus had once told me, but now they were on a first name basis. So, this was the second teacher this week already that Albus had to greet from his parents.

Mr. Fischer arrived five minutes early in our classroom. That's something I liked about him: Unlike some other teachers, he actually tried to be punctual, because it was expected from the students as well. Albus was sitting next to me and decided to get past the embarrassing part as quickly as possible: "Mr. Fischer?" he said.

"Hello Albus, how are you?" Mr. Fischer smiled.

"I'm fine, and you, Sir?"

"Yes thanks."

"I have to say hello from my parents."

The whole class laughed, because it was some kind of running gag for us: Albus always complained about having to greet certain teachers from his parents.

I heard how Rose said to Leah: "I should greet him from my parents as well, but no one is going to notice if I don't". They giggled.

"Thank you very much, Albus. Tell them hello from me too, next time you see them."

"Sure", Albus answered and then whispered to me: "That will hopefully not be so soon." I laughed.

Then, Mr. Fischer started the lesson: "Today, we're going to learn a very important spell: _Petrificus Totalus,_ a spell which will disable your body and make you fall to the floor. This spell is quite dangerous, especially if you're doing something wrong. That's why we're going to learn some theory first…"

Everyone groaned: Theory was not our favourite thing about this subject at all.

"But if you concentrate very well, maybe we'll be able to try it out at the end of the lesson."

We all nodded and tried our best in learning the difficult theory. I was so happy to be back in Defence Against the Dark Arts and hear Mr. Fischer's cute German accent again.


	5. Chapter 5

_Albus POV:_

It was Tuesday afternoon, and we had no classes anymore for the rest of the day.

"Are you bored as well, Al?" Rose asked me, while we were hanging around in the Gryffindor common room.

"Kind of, yeah", I answered, smiling at my cousin.

"Let's take a walk, then?" she said. I agreed, so we took our coats, as it was still raining a little, and went out.

"Perfect weather for a walk", Rose laughed as we exited the castle. I laughed too.

"But it's better than staying inside for the whole day", I said.

"That's true. Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know… maybe the lake?"

"That sounds great. By the way, have you heard about the house parties? Our year was asked to help organize them. It'll be so much fun!"

I smiled. "Yeah, that's right. I heard about it. The first one will be held in Hufflepuff, their parties are always fun."

"Okay, I haven't been to many house parties yet besides the ones in Gryffindor, but that's cool. I've only been to a Slytherin one with Scorpius once."

"How was it? I've never been to the Slytherin common room!" Hogwarts students were not allowed in the common rooms of other houses than their own, except for the parties.

"It was quite nice. It was a nice setting for a party, but I couldn't imagine living there. It doesn't look cosy enough for me…"

I laughed. "Okay, then you are in the right house. I'm glad too that I wasn't sorted into Slytherin. Not that I don't like them, but I feel like I wouldn't fit in there… And I like being in the same house with you."

Rose smiled. "That's nice; I enjoy your company too!"

We were silent for a while. We had arrived at the lake now. It was quite windy and we couldn't see far because of the fog, but I liked this kind of landscape that was typical for Scotland. On a nice summer day, tons of students would sit down at the lake, but today Rose and I were the only ones there and we walked quite fast in order to keep ourselves warm.

"Al, can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Do you really like Scorpius?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes I feel like you're a bit suspicious when it comes to him, but I can't figure out why…"

"No, you're only imagining that!"

"Are you sure? I mean, it looks to me like you're a little jealous of him. But you have no reason to!"

"It's not that. Well, maybe I like to know what my cousin does with who; I'm just worried about you. But I guess that's not the real problem: I think I just can't leave the past behind me. I know that my father is on good terms with Scorpius' father now. But I sometimes have the feeling that the whole school waits for a fight between the two of us or something, because their parents all told them about the rivalry between our fathers. And that's just annoying."

"Being the son of Harry Potter is hard", Rose laughed, "but seriously: I understand what you mean. Maybe you could talk to him about it? Maybe he feels the same way, who knows…"

"I'm not sure. I don't feel close enough with him to talk about anything deep. And please don't mention it to anyone either. I guess I just overthink sometimes."

"Don't worry; I'll keep my mouth shut. Is that the reason why you're glad that you aren't in Slytherin?"

"Well, it is one of the reasons, I guess. It's just that everyone is like 'Look, that's the son of Harry Potter, he'll be in Gryffindor and he'll be in the Quidditch team' and so on… And I like doing all these things but I'd like to do them for myself and not because I'm expected to…"

"That's right."

"But yeah, I shouldn't complain, I guess. I have everything I want in my life. And how are you doing, my favourite cousin?"


	6. Chapter 6

_Cadence POV:_

"Cady, are you listening to me?" I heard Selena's voice from the distance.

"Yeah, I'm sorry… What were you saying?"

"We have to meet with the other Hufflepuffs in the common room on five p.m. today."

"Why?"

"We have to plan the party!"

"Oh yeah, that's right. Have you got any ideas yet?"

"Totally! So, I thought we could organise a little contest, like Amy said. Maybe a dancing contest?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. I didn't really think of dancing, to be honest with you."

"Okay, have you got another suggestion?"

"Not really." I laughed and she joined. It was always the same: I didn't agree with her but then I didn't know how to do it better.

"We'll see."

"Cady! Selena!", we heard someone scream. It was Jayden, accompanied by Bailey, my friends from Ravenclaw whom I hadn't seen since the train ride.

We all greeted each other and talked about unimportant things. Then we realized that we now had Charms together. Charms had always been one of my favourite classes, because it never got boring. Our teacher, Mr. Bennet, was a young man from Ireland who never got tired of hearing our questions and trying out new things. I was not very good at it, but I thought it was one of the most important subjects that we had, so I always studied a bit more for it than I did for the other subjects.

"Cady, how is everything going?" Jayden asked. This was already the second time today that someone interrupted my thoughts and I didn't answer at first:

"Umm… yes, I'm doing fine, and you?"

"Me too, thanks. Are you looking forward to Charms?"

"Yes, a lot", I said, "I think Mr. Bennet is awesome. What about you?"

"Yes, I think the same thing. He's quite funny, actually."

We were quiet for a while as we were walking around in the castle.

Then Jayden said: "So I heard your house is doing a party this weekend? Have you already planned anything?"

"That's right. And no, we haven't planned anything, but we have some ideas."

"Tell me about them."

"Of course not, it's going to be a surprise!" I said and he laughed.

"You're so cheeky sometimes, Cady!"

It was five p.m. and about 15 students of Hufflepuff had gathered in the common room. Sara McAllister, the head girl of Hufflepuff, was standing in front of us, behind her a magic whiteboard that you could write on with a wand.

"Hello everyone, as you know we are hosting a party on Saturday and the whole school is invited. So, have any of you got any ideas?"

About five people raised their hands, one of them was Selena. But the first one to speak was a sixth-year, I didn't know his name: "So we were thinking about the music, and we know someone who could be the DJ. We'd only have to ask McGonagall if he could stay at Hogwarts for one night, he's a friend of us."

"That sounds great!" Sara said, "What kind of music will he play?"

"He has mixed some own things, but other than that just the charts, you know."

"Great! Does he play Muggle music or only wizard's music?"

"Both, I think."

Sara moved her wand and a note about the DJ appeared, then she said: "Selena, you wanted to say something?"

"Yes, we thought about hosting a competition or something during the party."

The sixth-year who had spoken before said: "That's a great idea, I feel like that kind of thing is what Hufflepuff parties are famous for."

"What kind of competition do you have in mind?" Sara asked.

"We're not sure; maybe any of you have an idea?"

We decided to do a contest between the four houses, where they had to play several little games such as guessing food with blindfolded eyes etc.

About half an hour later, the whole concept for the party was set up: Some students would mix drinks (with and without alcohol), Sara would organize some decorations, some boys would create a flyer and Amy, Selena, Diana and I had to organise some things for the competition.

"Are you guys coming to the library with me?" Amy asked, "I need to find some books."

"I'm coming", I said.

We went out of the common room and headed to the library. It was empty, as the school year had only just started and hardly anybody needed to do a lot of studying yet. When we entered, I realised again what a magical place the Hogwarts library was: Thousands of books in hundreds of shelves, each of them with a different story to tell…


	7. Chapter 7

_Albus POV:_

It was Thursday morning and when I looked out of our bedroom window, I realised that it was raining again. My motivation for school had already faded away on the fourth day. _How sad is that,_ I thought to myself, _how am I going to manage the next four years at Hogwarts if I have no motivation at all?_ My mood lit up when we read a little note on the Gryffindor noticeboard:

Today, at 5pm we will show the Quidditch World Cup qualifying match Ireland vs. Switzerland on the big screen at the Great Hall.

"Oh, that's nice", I said to Daniel, "We're going to watch, aren't we?"

"Yes, certainly. I didn't expect them to show the Ireland match, I've already been counting days until England is playing."

"Oh, when is that?"

"In 12 days, they're going to have a match against Finland. I'm pretty sure it will be shown on the big screen too."

"I hope so!"

At 3pm and we were heading to our last lesson for this day: Care of Magical Creatures. That was an optional subject and I had chosen it mainly because Hagrid was the teacher and also because I liked going outside once in a while, although by now I had realised that it wasn't always too comfortable, for example in the winter. Hagrid was a friend of my father and had already been his teacher back in the old days. Over the past three years he had invited me and my brother for a tea sometimes and we had talked about the old times, what was going on at Hogwarts and in the world… When we arrived at Hagrid's hut, he was already standing in front of it, next to him a huge cage. "I wonder what he has prepared for us", Rose said.

"I don't know, but I hope it's something interesting", I said, "but he usually brings interesting animals."

"Interesting… or dangerous", Rose said and we laughed.

"Hello Hagrid!" I yelled, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine", he answered and smiled, "what about you?"

"Me too! Of course, Rose and I have to say Hello from our parents!"

The other students laughed as always when we did this.

"That's right", Rose said.

"Well thanks, then", Hagrid laughed, "tell them Hello from me too the next time you see or write them."

"We will. What animal are we looking at today?" I asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute, when everyone has arrived", he said.

We chatted for a bit and as soon as everyone had arrived, Hagrid started his lesson:

"We are going to look at a special animal today: The kneazle. A kneazle looks a bit like a cat, but the tail is similar to that of a lion. They aren't dangerous unless they feel threatened and you have to make sure no Muggle can see them, otherwise you'll get a problem with the Ministry."

Working with these creatures was fun, but soon it started to rain again and it was cold. I was already looking forward to watching the Quidditch match in the Great Hall with a warm cup of tea or a butterbeer.

When we arrived at the Great Hall, people had already gathered for the match. Daniel and I sat down next to some other Gryffindors and ordered a cup of tea. Switzerland was just singing their national anthem. "What language is that?" I asked. A voice from behind me answered: "They speak more than language there, for instance German or French."

"Hi, Cady!" I said, "You're also watching with us?"

"Yes, sure. Has Ireland already sung their national anthem?"

"Not sure, I just arrived as well. Who are you supporting?"

"Well, I've been to Switzerland this summer so I think it'd be nice to see them winning, but of course Ireland is cool too. What about you?"

"Yes, I'll see, both are nice. The really interesting match is in two weeks: England vs. Finland."

"I'm already looking forward to it!"

Ireland started singing the national anthem and the Great Hall began to fill with people. Rose sat down next us with her friends, Leah and Mary. Mary had her hair in a ponytail and looked really beautiful, like always. I wanted to make conversations with her but I didn't know what to say so I just talked to the three of them so it wouldn't be awkward:

"Hey girls, how are things going?"

"We're fine", Leah answered, "except for the weather of course. And you guys?"  
"Yeah, me too", I said, "by the way, is that match set in Ireland? Because it looks pretty rainy there too…"

"Yes, it's in Dublin", Rose answered.

Half an hour later, the match was still going on. Ireland was leading: 60 – 20. The snitch hadn't been seen anywhere yet and the weather had gotten much worse; the rain was so heavy that the players were soaking wet and could hardly see more than a few metres. But it was a good game and the atmosphere in the Great Hall was amazing: Some Irish students had dressed up in their country's colours and were screaming at the top of their lungs. Some people were also supporting Switzerland but most were just enjoying the fact that so many Hogwarts students together were watching a Quidditch match and having a good time.


	8. Chapter 8

_Cadence POV:_

It was Friday afternoon and school was already over for us, so we decided to finish the preparations for our contest for the party on Saturday. We had already prepared most of the things the day before, but there was still some work to do. Amy, Selena, Diana and I had decided to go to the library in order to be able to concentrate properly. Matthew had offered to help us, so he joined us some minutes later. "Okay guys, can you maybe sum up what you have done until now? Because I didn't help you yesterday", said Matthew.

"Sure", said Diana, "so we decided there will be six tasks, and in each of them you can collect three, two, one or zero points, depending on how well you do. We've prepared some of the tasks: One will be, just like Selena wished, dancing. But while dancing, you have to hold a balloon between you and your partners head."

"And you can't just dance, there'll be a slalom where you have to move around", Selena added.

"Sounds great", stated Matthew and smiled.

"The other tasks are: Eating a chocolate that is still packed in with a knife and a fork while wearing gloves. Then there'll be a task where you have to guess food while you're blindfolded. Umm, what else did we plan?", Diana continued.

"We had one part where you have to balance things: Once a glass marble on a spoon that's in your mouth and once a book on your head. Now, we'll get to the interesting part: In all these tasks that we've told you about until now, they will have to hand in their wands and any use of magic will not be permitted. But one task will be with wands, because they'll have to make a little magic performance."

"This will be interesting", Matthew said.

"Yeah, I hope so", I answered, "let's get to work, then."

One day later, on Saturday evening, the Hufflepuff common room was decorated with lots of balloons, fairy lights and other magical things. There was quite a big bar in one corner and in another corner the table for the DJ was set up. Most of the Hufflepuffs were already around and having a drink, but hardly any other people had turned up yet, because according to the flyer the party had only just started a few minutes ago.

I was relaxing on a couch with Matthew and Diana when Bailey and Jayden walked in. "Hey everyone, how are you?", said Bailey and they joined us on the couch.

"We're fine, and you?"

"Sure. Are you nervous about the contest?"

"A little bit. Selena and I will be the hosts; Matt, Amy and Diana will be the judges. I'm a bit afraid of public speaking, but I see it as a challenge."

Bailey laughed: "That's nice. Ravenclaw will win, obviously!"

"Watch out", I said, "it's not only about intelligence in this contest!"

We laughed and Bailey said: "We'll see."

Meanwhile, quite a few people from other houses had arrived.

"There aren't many Slytherins here yet", Jayden noticed, "but they're kind of famous for arriving at parties late and maybe a little drunk already." We laughed.

Right at this moment, some Gryffindors and Slytherins arrived, including Albus, Daniel, Rose, her friends and Scorpius.

About one hour later, the room was already quite filled and everyone was having a good time. The DJ was playing the biggest hits of the year: some Muggle songs and some wizard songs. The funny thing about the music industry in the Muggle world was that they didn't know that some of their favourite artists were actually wizards and witches, for instance Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran. I was on the dance floor with Jayden and Bailey when Sara came to me and asked: "When are you going to do the contest?"

"We thought maybe at 8pm? What time is it now?"

"It's half past seven. 8 pm sounds great, I'll tell the DJ."

"Okay, thanks."

"Listen up, everyone! Are you ready for tonight's highlight?"

The crowd cheered, but I was getting anxious: There were far more people than I had expected and I wasn't sure if I really could speak in front of them. At least I had Selena to help me. The five of us walked to the DJ's table and Selena began to speak: "Welcome to our competition between the four houses…"

She quickly explained the rules and then told the students stand together as a house, so they could choose their people for each task. The first task was the dancing: Each house had to choose two couples. I noticed that Rose and Albus were one of the couples from Gryffindor and I also noticed that Scorpius looked like he wasn't happy with how close the two cousins were…

Every couple had to do the slalom once and we stopped time, while the DJ played some music and the crowd cheered for their couple. When the first Slytherin couple, a blonde tall girl and her pierced and tattooed boyfriend, started dancing, some Gryffindors and even some Ravenclwas started booing. I looked at Selena and she already reacted to the situation: "No booing or bullying allowed!" Then she whispered to me: "At least the Hufflepuffs are nice."

I nodded and smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

_Albus POV:_

"That went well", I said to Rose after our dance.

"I think you guys were pretty fast", Mary said and smiled at us.

"Let's hope we were the fastest", I answered and smiled back.

Selena made the crowd calm down and said: "Okay guys, this was amazing! Personally, it's my favourite task, but that doesn't mean the others are any less entertaining. Ravenclaw doesn't seem to be a house of dancers, their couples took the longest so they gained zero points in this round. Hufflepuff has one point, Gryffindor gained two and Slytherin is this round's winner and gained three points. Cadence will now explain the next task to you."

I saw that Cady was nervous, but I knew she could do it: "So the next task might seem strange at first but I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun. Who wants some chocolate?"

Of course, everyone wanted chocolate.

"In the next task, you will have to eat quite a lot of chocolate", she continued, "each house will send two people who will have to eat an unpacked chocolate bar only using a knife and a fork. But that's not all: You'll be wearing these thick gloves."

We laughed at first, but it turned out to be a lot more difficult than we had imagined. After several minutes of watching their struggle, a prefect of Hufflepuff managed to eat it. Everyone cheered. Slytherin followed, then Ravenclaw and sadly Gryffindor was the last one.

"Hopefully we'll be better at the next one", Daniel said, "Gryffindors don't seem to be good at eating chocolate."

"Listen up, everyone", Selena said in this moment, "the next task will be pretty tasty as well: Every house sends one person. This person will be blindfolded and they'll have to guess food that we give them in a little spoon."

We sent an attractive girl from year seven whom I had noticed a lot before, but I knew that she was too old for me. But at this moment I only hoped she would win three points for us. It was pretty fun to watch, because the reaction of the crowd always gave away whether the food was nice or disgusting. Our girl, Jessica, was pretty good at guessing, but I felt like she always got the most difficult ones (of course they had to give different things to each candidate).

"This was an interesting round", Selena announced, "Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were both equally good so they got three points each. Slytherin was next, so they earned one point. Hufflepuff sadly didn't earn any points in this round, but I'm sure we'll win anyway!"

"What, they both got three points?", a boy from Slytherin screamed, "how is that fair?"

"Well, they did equally good so that's the obvious thing to do, isn't it?", Selena answered.

"We didn't know it would work that way!", another Slytherin said angrily, "you didn't say anything in the beginning!"

Selena wanted to talk back at her – she already looked quite angry – but Sara, the head girl of Hufflepuff jumped in: "That's right, they couldn't explain everything in detail in the beginning. But they told me about it. We're really sorry, but we can't change it."

Some Slytherins still looked quite angry, but the head boy of Slytherin said calmly: "That's okay, no problem."

Then Cady said: "Okay, so are you all ready for the next task?"

In the back, the DJ screamed "We're ready!", we all laughed and suddenly all the tension in the room went away.

The next task was about balancing things: Each house had to choose two people, one of them to balance a book on their head and the other one had to take a spoon with a glass marble on it in their mouth, they had to go around the slalom again. We sent my brother James and one of his friends.

"Go, James!", Rose screamed. He and his friend danced with the crowd first to warm us up a little and then they started, while the jury stopped time.

"This round had a clear winner!", Cady announced when the last ones, two girls from Ravenclaw, had finished, "and that's Gryffindor!" We screamed and did a huge group hug. Clearly the other houses had gotten a bit annoyed at us for being so loud by now, but in a funny way. Cady smiled and continued: "Ravenclaw gained two points, Slytherin one and Hufflepuff zero."

"The next task will be some team work", Selena said, "each house has to choose fifteen people, and they will have to do some things as a group."

I was also part of our group and we had to do things such as all fit in one square meter and then we had pull a rope against the other houses, which was quite fun.

"Slytherin won this round, so three points to you guys!" They screamed and hugged each other, but of course I hoped we could still beat them.

"Hufflepuff gained two points in this round, Gryffindor one and Ravenclaw none. If you thought these five rounds have been too stressful, then we have bad news for you: The last one will be far more exciting! Because in this, you will have to get really creative and you'll be allowed to use your wands!", Selena announced.

"Exactly", Cady continued, "we'll give you a theme and four people of each house will have to create an image that fits the theme. Our jury will judge which one is the most impressive and then we'll give points according to that. Of course, it might be strategically smarter to only send seventh-years for this task – and you are of course allowed to do that – but remember that everyone can be creative."

We choose James, Jessica, our head boy Andrew and his friend, of which I didn't know the name. They had to create different images to themes such as "Summer in Scottish Highlands" or "The Quidditch World Cup in the United States". I thought our team did pretty well, but we didn't know the results yet.

"Okay guys, here are our final results!", Selena shouted, "but first we want to say thank you for participating, you all did incredibly well. Here are our results: On the fourth place is Hufflepuff, they gained two points in the last round and have a total of eight now. I'm really sorry, guys. Of course, you still get a price."

Cady handed them candy, enough for the whole house to eat.

"Oh, there are prices!", Rose said, a bit astonished.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have participated", I laughed.

"On the third place, with a total of nine points, because they sadly didn't gain any points in the last round, is Gryffindor!"

"What? We were supposed to win!", James shouted, half-jokingly, but also a bit disappointed.

Cady gave a big pack of snacks and drinks to us and we thanked her.

"Now it's about Ravenclaw or Slytherin, who will win?", Selena asked the crowd.


	10. Chapter 10

_Albus POV:_

Selena continued: "The first placed house will get tickets for a Quidditch match between the Holyhead Harpies and the Chudley Cannons. The price for the second placed house is a round of free drinks at _The_ _Three Broomsticks._ The prices are sponsored by donations that we collected this week and some teachers, including our headmistress Professor McGonagall, so thanks for that to everyone! Now: The winner of this game was…. Slytherin, congrats! Ravenclaw, congratulations to you as well, you even collected three points in the last round!"

The Slytherins screamed, danced and hugged each other. I was happy for them, because I felt like they deserved winning from time to time after so many years of bullying from the other houses.

After the competition was over, the party went on. I went to get some drinks together with James, Jessica and Rose.

"What a shame we didn't win these Quidditch match tickets", James said, "maybe I'll ask our mother if she can get us cheaper ones, I'd like to see that match."

"Yeah, it's in Inverness", Jessica said, "that's not too far away from here."

"It's a shame anyway that we didn't win", I complained.

"Come on, third place is also something", Jessica smiled, "it's what we got in the Qudditch House Cup last year!"

We laughed.

"Yeah, that was pretty bad", James answered, "we'll certainly do better this year."

Cady and Selena joined us at the bar and Cady asked: "How was it?"

"It was fantastic, really", Rose said, "it's just a bit sad that your house lost its own competition, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I know. But it isn't about winning", Cady smiled.

"You're such a typical Hufflepuff", I laughed.

James and Jessica started dancing together, and I went to sit down with the three girls.

 _Cadence POV:_

After talking to Albus, Rose and Selena for a while, we all got a bit bored and decided to dance a little. Some people had already had a bit too much alcohol, so it was quite hard to find a space where nobody bothered you. More people joined us and we had a lot of fun, until the DJ decided to do a period of playing slow music where couples could dance with each other. I went off the dance floor together with Selena, Amy, Diana and Bailey.

"I suppose that was it", Amy complained, "I don't think any boy will ask me to dance with him."

"Who knows", I said.

"Maybe the DJ will play some other music later", Diana said.

"Hopefully", I answered, "let's get some snacks. I don't want a boy to dance with me." I didn't know why I had said that, because it wasn't actually entirely true…

We got some snacks and then hung around and talked a bit, but it didn't take long until a fourth-year from Gryffindor asked Selena to dance with him.

"That was not surprising", Diana stated after they had disappeared.

"Of course", I said.

Rose came over to us, together with her friends Leah and Mary.

"Where's Selena?", she asked.

"Oh, someone's asked her for a dance", I answered.

"Not surprising", said Rose and laughed, "won't happen to me, I guess."

"We'll see", I said.

Just a few minutes after that, Scorpius came over to us, took Rose's hand and went off to the dance floor with her.

"I was right", I said to her friends and they laughed.

We had some conversations and then Albus joined us and said to Mary: "Do you want to dance with me?"

She looked very surprised and said yes.

Leah and I smiled at each other.

"Imagine them as a couple", said Diana, "that'd be cute!"

"I know, right?", I said, although I wasn't completely convinced. I liked Mary, but I didn't know anything about her.

The party went on and after a while Jayden came over and we danced together. After a while, the DJ started playing faster music again and we all had a wonderful time. I didn't see Mary or Albus anymore… _That doesn't mean anything!_ I told myself, but I couldn't stop wondering where they were.

We went to bed at circa 1 pm and we were all incredibly tired, but happy.

"That was nice!", Selena said.

We all agreed, although Albus and Mary were still at the back of my mind.


	11. Chapter 11

_Cadence POV:_

It was Monday morning and we were in class again. Sunday had been quite boring, I had spent almost the entire day in the Hufflepuff common room, most of the time helping to clear up everything that was left from the party. Now I was sitting in Transfiguration class next to Jayden and Diana. Jayden was talking to Matt and Diana was reading, so I didn't really talk to anyone. Some Ravenclaw girls in the back row were gossiping about the party:

"It was amazing! It's just a shame that we didn't win the Quidditch match tickets", one of them said.

"That's true… By the way: I think there's a new couple in our year now!", said her friend.

That's where I listened up.

"Yeah, I know", the first girl answered, "apparently, Albus and Mary from Gryffindor sneaked out of the common room and now they don't really want to tell anyone what happened. But of course, we all know that they must have kissed!"

They giggled.

I was a bit confused: Why didn't they want to tell anyone? Were they officially together now?

At this moment, Transfiguration class started and I forgot about it for a while. I decided to ask Albus about it in Herbology later. But then again, I thought: _Well, Mary's going to be there too. I can't just ask… Either it's going to be obvious that they're together or I won't find out._

"Cady, what's up with you?", Selena asked, "you're so quiet!"

"Oh, nothing. I'm just a bit tired."

But in Herbology, I got distracted from my thoughts: "Listen, guys!", Rose screamed when we met at the big front door of the castle.

"What's up?", I asked and started to worry, because Rose looked quite shocked.

"Something terrible has happened!"

"What?", Selena asked.

"Ten Muggles got attacked, one of them was killed, in Manchester!"

"That's sad, but it happens. Why is it in the _Daily Prophet?",_ I said and pointed at the edition which Rose was holding in her hands.

"That's the horrible thing. A wizard who works undercover as a police agent in Manchester found out that the death and the injuries must have been caused by magic. The Muggle police can't understand what happened…"

Everyone was quiet and listened to Rose's report.

"The bad thing is, something similar already happened in London this summer: Two muggles have been found dead and it was caused by the killing curse. Now the Ministry of Magic is suspecting a series… That's pretty frightening, isn't it?"

"I'm from Manchester", Diana said, "is there any way to find out who got injured and killed?"

"I don't know", Rose answered, "I'm sorry. The only thing I know is that it happened in a suburb called Salford."

"Okay, I don't know anyone there", Diana answered.

We arrived at the greenhouses and chatted for a while, as the lesson hadn't started yet.

"Who do you think might be behind these attacks?", I asked Rose.

"I'm not sure", she answered, "some people say it's just some crazy teenagers or something, but I was wondering if this might be a case of Neo Death Eaters."

"That would be horrible", I answered, "but I have been thinking about this as well. Did you talk to your parents about it yet? Your father is an auror, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is, although he only works part time as an auror. I haven't talked to them about it yet…"

"There haven't been Neo Death Eater attacks in ages, right?"

"Well, there were some a few years ago, do you remember them? But these people were all caught and are in Azkaban now…"

"Oh yes, I remember that. That was quite a big deal back then! I really hope that this time those people are being caught soon, whoever they are…"

We weren't really able to concentrate well in Herbology, but our teacher, Mr. Longbottom, understood. Of course, he had also heard of the attacks and tried to calm us a little bit: "I know these things are horrible, but we just have to hope they are caught soon and it's not part of a bigger thing. But honestly, I doubt that. There haven't been any cases of Neo Death Eaters in years, why should they suddenly reappear like that?"

Rose and I didn't quite agree with that, but we still managed to concentrate on the plants and stop worrying for a while.

(Author's note: I wrote this part of the story more than one year before the attack at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester happened. Like everyone else, I'm deeply saddened by what happened. I decided to publish my story nevertheless because I don't want vicious people like those terrorists to stop anyone from being creative and sharing their work with other people. Writing stories is one of the most beautiful things you can do to make the world a little more wonderful. All the love!)


	12. Chapter 12

_Albus POV:_

"What do you think, Dad?", I asked curiously.

It was Tuesday evening and I was sitting at the fire in Gryffindor common room, together with James. Our father was talking to us through the fire, using the floo network.

"Are you guys alone?", he asked.

We nodded.

"Okay. The Ministry is very unsure about what happened. There are a lot of indications that the attacks and especially the murder were done by wizards. But who was it? Today, some colleagues and I did some research on the magic community in Manchester. But we feel like that's not the right approach. Of course, Manchester, like every other major city in the UK, has had some problems with keeping all the wizards in their place over the years. But there are no big groups of Neo Death Eaters or anything like that. We feel like this wasn't a local thing and it was connected to the attacks of Neo Death Eaters that happened a few years ago… Albus, you were pretty young back then, I'm not sure if you remember?"

"I do", I answered.

"Exactly. We think that we would have to search in London. It's of course by far the biggest city in Great Britain, that's why it's the easiest for criminal wizard groups to hide there. But without permission we can't just search through whole London. We have to find some proof first."

"Why do you think it was Neo Death Eaters and not another organization?", James asked.

"It's just a feeling", Dad said, "the attacks are done very similarly to those a few years ago and even to those from Voldemort back from where I was in your age. But of course, it could have been anyone."

For a while, we were all quiet, then Dad continued: "You guys don't have to worry about this now. Hogwarts is safe, for sure! How is school going?"

"It's going well, thanks", I answered.

"Yes", James added, "we had a party over at the Hufflepuff common room on Saturday and there was a competition between all the houses, it was pretty nice. But sadly, Gryffindor didn't win."

"Okay, who won, then?", our father asked.

"Slytherin", I answered.

"Great, and now you hate each other even more?", he asked and laughed.

"Of course not!", James said, "times have changed, Dad."

"That's good to hear", he said, "listen, I've got to go: Say hello to Lily, Rose and Hugo from me."

"We will. And we have to say hello back from all the teachers", I said.

"Oh, thanks", Dad smiled, "goodbye then. Have a good time, take care!"

"We will!", James said.

Just in this moment, Jessica came downstairs.

"What were you guys doing?", she asked.

"We just had a little talk with our Dad", James answered.

"Oh, the real Harry Potter?", she asked, "that's so cool!"

"Well yeah, for us he's just Dad", I said.

"Of course", Jessica smiled, "anyway, do you guys want to play some wizard's chess?"

"I'm tired, but thanks", I said, "I'll go to bed, good night!"

"Good night!", they both said and I went upstairs to the boy's dorms.

 _I wonder whether they have a thing together,_ I was thinking to myself, _but of course it's none of my business…_

The next morning, I walked down to the Great Hall together with Rose. "I have to say hello from Dad to you", I told her.

"Oh thanks", she said, "what did you talk to him about?"

"The events in Manchester. He said that they can't find any evidence, but they all think it was some Neo Death Eaters."

"Yes, that's possible. I've talked about this with Cady on Monday. I hope it won't happen again…"

"Me too, of course. But Dad said that at least, in Hogwarts we are safe."


	13. Chapter 13

_Cadence POV:_

Over the week, a lot of rumours about the Manchester attack had spread in Hogwarts. Everyone had a different theory on who was behind it. I heard a lot of people talking about Neo Death Eaters, but other suspected other organisations, and I even heard one girl say: "I bet it was the ministry itself. They need someone to blame, so they can show an achievement to get re-elected next year."

"Are you crazy?", her friend asked.

"My dad always says our government is no good. I bet a lot of people think the same thing, but if they could blame somebody else, they might have a chance to stay", the girl answered.

Selena heard that too and turned to me: "Some people really are stupid, wow."

"I know, right?", I answered, "who would believe such a conspiracy theory?"

They must have heard us, because they gave us an angry look and then walked away.

Selena and I laughed.

"I guess we're part of their conspiracy too, now", I said.

On Friday, I finally had the chance to talk to Albus alone. We met in the Great Hall.

"Hey Cady, how are you doing?", he asked.

"I'm fine, what about you?"

"Me too, thanks."

"I have a question", I said nervously, "but it's okay if you don't want to answer. Are you and Mary a couple?"

"My god, people are always spreading rumours", he laughed, "we're not together! We just both went to back to the Gryffindor common room, because we were tired. There were even some people with us, but some people are now saying we were alone and so on…"

"Okay, then", I said, a bit surprised, "I thought you liked her."

He smiled: "Of course, I think she's amazing. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked her to dance with me. But we're just friends."

For some reason, I was relieved to hear that. _What's your problem, Cady?_ I asked myself, _Albus can be with whoever he wants to…_

Albus didn't seem to notice that I was deep in my thoughts and asked: "Hey Cady, do you want go out and play some Quidditch this afternoon? You could ask some of your people and I could ask some of mine. The season is about to start and I we think we all need to train in order to make it into our teams again."

"That's great!", I said, "I'm always ready for Quidditch! Will we see each other at the front door at, let's say, 3.30 pm?"

"Perfect!", he said, "See you, then!"

Some hours later, I stood at the front door of Hogwarts castle together with Bailey and Matthew. Last year, they had both been chasers in the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, just like I had been one in the Hufflepuff team. Obviously, we were all hoping to make it into the teams again. After some minutes, Albus, Daniel and Rose joined us. We walked down to the Quidditch field. "Did any of you actually book it?", Matthew asked.

"Not really", Albus said and we all laughed.

"We'll just hope nobody else is there", I said.

"If there are other people, we can play with them as well", Rose said.

"I'm so looking forward to the England match next week", Albus said, "the match Ireland vs. Switzerland was so cool to watch on the big screen."

"Yes, it was. Who won, in the end?", Matthew asked, "I totally forgot."

"Switzerland won, surprisingly", Rose answered, "Their seeker caught the snitch."

We arrived at the Quidditch field and no one was there, so we made two teams:

"I guess it's Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?", Albus suggested.

We all agreed. Matthew was the keeper for our team, in the Gryffindor team Rose was the keeper, because this had also been her real position in the Gryffindor team last year. Of course, we played without a snitch, it was just about scoring goals.

It was so good to fly on a Broomstick again. I hadn't done this in ages, because in Brighton there was hardly any place to fly without being seen. At first, Bailey and I scored a lot of goals, but after a while, it began to rain and we were getting exhausted. Albus and Daniel were catching up and it was a tight game. After almost two hours, we stopped. It was 210 to 180 for them, but I didn't mind. We'd had a good time and that was all that mattered.


	14. Chapter 14

_Albus POV:_

It rained very heavily the whole weekend, on Saturday evening there was even a storm, so we had no chance of going out and playing Quidditch again. I spent a lot of time playing wizard chess with the other Gryffindors or just hanging around. On Sunday morning, it was still raining very hard, but at least the storm was gone. Rose came up to me and said: "Are you just as bored as me? I thought we could visit Cady…"

"Yes, I'd love to", I said.

Half an hour later, we met with Cady in the library.

"Awful weather", she complained.

"Yes", I agreed, "nevertheless, did you have nice weekend so far?"

"Yes, although I was quite bored. I read some books."

" _Some books?",_ I said as if I'd had never heard these words before.

Cady laughed.

"You mean to say you've read a few entire books in like 48 hours?"

"Yes, I finished one and then another and now I've started another one."

"Some people can read, Al", Rose laughed.

"Very funny", I said, but I smiled.

"Anyway, how are you doing?", Cady asked, "did you get any inside news about the Manchester attacks?"

"So that's why you agreed to seeing us?", Rose laughed, "No, just kidding… We didn't get any news, sadly. I don't think they've found out anything new. Did you hear anything?"

"Yes, I overheard something interesting in the Hufflepuff common room this morning", Cady said.

"What was it?", I asked.

"I'm not sure what to think of it, because over the past week, I've heard a lot of stupid theories, so now I don't know what to believe anymore… But today, it felt different: A kid claimed that his Dad worked for the Ministry. Not as an auror, but very close to the Minister of Magic himself. And apparently, they received an anonymous letter that said where the next attack will be in…"

We looked at Cady in horror.

"Glasgow", she said.

"Oh god!", Rose said, "that's not so far from Hogwarts!"

"Exactly", Cady agreed, "but of course, I have no idea whether this kid was saying the truth or whether the story was made up entirely solely in order to impress his friends."

"I mean, we could find out!", I said.

"Yes", Rose said, "we just have to look up the names of the people working close with the Minister of Magic and the names of the kids in Hufflepuff. That's manageable."

Cady nodded: "And we'll hear if another attack happens… But let's hope not!"

The whole afternoon, I spent thinking about what Cady had told me and Rose: _What if tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, Glasgow is all over the news? Should we inform somebody? But the Ministry would do something if it was true, wouldn't it?_

Cady, Rose and I had agreed to find out about the names but take no further action, as it was not our responsibility. I didn't intend to end up being like my Dad and having all kinds of adventures at Hogwarts. Although his stories were always nice and interesting, I preferred to have a calmer life and not putting my life in danger every other week…

On Monday, I first had potions and then herbology. In herbology, I sat next to Cady and Diana. "How are you doing?", I asked them. I wasn't sure whether Cady had told Diana about the anonymous letter to the Ministry as well, so I decided to not mention it.

"I'm looking forward to the Quidditch match tomorrow!", Diana said.

"Yes, me too", I answered, "I'm sure it'll be cool, but I guess Finland won't be easy to beat!"

"Wait, aren't we playing against Germany tomorrow?", said Cady, confused.

"I thought it was against Finland, at least Daniel told me so", I said.

"Okay, we'll see. But I'm looking forward to it anyway!"

When Daniel and I got back to the Gryffindor common room, people were gathering around note on the Gryffindor noticeboard:

Tomorrow (Tuesday), at 5pm we will show the Quidditch World Cup qualifying match England vs. Finland on the big screen at the Great Hall.

"We were right!", I said to Daniel, "It's against Finland tomorrow!"

He nodded: "And we're in it to win it!"


	15. Chapter 15

_Cadence POV:_

It was Tuesday afternoon, we had just finished the last class of the day and although the match was more than one hour away, lots of people were already running around in England scarves, hats etc. The hallways were louder than usual, students were screaming and singing traditional English songs such as the 'God Save the Queen' or 'Rule Britannia'… At one point, some teachers even had to interfere and tell the students to be quiet (but I was sure they secretly felt like singing the National Anthem too).

"Do we go back to the Common Room before the game starts?", Selena asked.

"Sure, but we have to make sure that we go back down early enough in order to get a good seat", I said.

"Oh, here we have a real Quidditch fan!", Diana joked.

"You guys laugh now", I smiled, "but the moment the game starts, you'll all be fanatics, I'm telling you!"

"Hey Cady, do you think I should bring my UK flag to the game?", Diana asked me 20 minutes later when were at our dorms.

I laughed: "Who's a Quidditch fan now? No, seriously: You have one here? Sure, you should bring it!"

"I'm just not sure because it's an England match but the flag I have is the Union Jack…"

"That doesn't matter", I said, "let's ask Selena whether she can do some England themed make-up for us!"

Selena was a very good make-up artist, not only in the Muggle kind of way, she could do even better make-up by using magic. And that's what she did for us today. We went down to the Common Room and let Selena perform her spells on us, not really sure yet whether it would turn out to be all right. She said she was going to make an England flag on our faces that would explode every 60 seconds so that our faces would look like a firework and then the England flag would appear again. I was quite concerned when Selena explained this to me the first time, but she said: "Don't worry, it works just like some kind of projection on a screen would."

It took Selena some minutes to figure out everything. "I don't want to burn your faces!", she said and I looked at Diana who seemed to be as shocked as I was. But soon, she said that she was ready: "Who wants to go first?"

"Too bad we don't have a Gryffindor here", Matthew commented. He was sitting in a chair next to us and watched the scenario with a mixture of amusement and tension.

We laughed, but Selena stayed serious: "One of you has to go first…"

"I will", I said, because I knew that Diana would never go first.

"How brave of you, Cady!", Matthew joked.

Amy, who was also sitting with us and watching, said: "If it doesn't go wrong, you can do it for me too, Selena."

"Alright", she said.

Selena pointed her wand directly in my face which already scared me to death but I didn't say anything. She had done my make-up like this before but only very simple things, so I was a bit nervous…

But before I could worry too much, Selena said: "Okay, there you go!"

"What, is it done already?", I asked.

"Let's just wait for the explosion to make sure!", she answered.

"It looks great!", Diana said.

But the explosion didn't come, apparently.

"Hmm, what did I do wrong?", Selena wondered and walked in circles for some minutes, then she said "Ahh!", returned to me and pointed her wand towards my face again.

"Now it should work!" she said, satisfied.

And it did: Some seconds later Matthew, Diana, Selena and Amy all jumped off their seats. Diana screamed: "Oh my god, this looks awesome!"

"What?", I was surprised, "did it work? Am I still alive?"

Matthew laughed: "Yes, and it looks great! I'm impressed, Selena!"  
Selena smiled: "Thanks, Matt! Diana, it's your turn now."

Diana looked less anxious than she did some minutes ago, because she had now seen that it wasn't dangerous, but she still wasn't so sure: "Is it going to hurt?"

"No, of course not", I laughed, "Hey, can I go to a mirror?"

"I'll come to the toilets with you", Amy suggested.

We went to the toilets and I was delighted by what I saw: The England flag on my skin seemed to match me like I was born with it and the fireworks looked even better.

"I like it!", I said, "So you're going to get it too, Amy?"

"Yes, I think so."

Half an hour later, Diana's and Amy's make up were done as well, Selena had done some make-up for herself (an English lion on the left check and a Finnish flag – out of solidarity, probably – on the right one), we all went down to the Great Hall. When we entered, it was already quite full: Lots of people with English flags, Union Jacks (Diana had brought hers too), other Quidditch fan accessories and even some Finnish flags. The atmosphere was great, students were drinking butterbeer or pumpkin juice and eating cake and other delicious looking desserts. The match could begin.


	16. Chapter 16

_Albus POV:_

I arrived in the Great Hall together with Daniel about 10 minutes before the match started. We had basically wanted to go earlier, but we had lost track of time. Daniel was wearing an England hat and I had brought one of these little annoying flags that people wave around all the time, like in the Muggle world. As my father had grown up in the Muggle world, he had shown me some aspects of it in my childhood (later, I'd realized that these were all the things that he missed out on while growing up with his aunt's family): We used to watch football together for instance, once we even went to a live match in Wembley Stadium. I have to say, football is almost like Quidditch, just less exciting.

"Wow, it's quite crowded here!", Daniel stated.

"Yeah, it is", I agreed, "and people are not even sitting together with their houses, how nice."

Eventually, we managed to find a place next to Rose, Leah and Mary, which I was of course happy about.

Just a minute later, Cady, Selena, Diana, Amy and Matthew sat down next to us.

"Wow, that's sick make-up!", I told the girls. Their faces were exploding England flags.

"Thanks", Cady said, "it's Selena's work!"

Then, we were interrupted by voice that spoke with a German accent:

"Have you still got a free place here?"

It was Mr. Fischer, our teacher for Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Sure", Rose said, polite as always.

If any other teacher had wanted to sit down next to us for a Quidditch match, I would've rolled my eyes, but Mr. Fischer was funny, so I didn't mind at all.

"How are you all?", he asked, "Excited for the match?"

"Yes, totally! I think the girls' make up says it all!", I answered.

Mr. Fischer said: "Wow, that's incredible! Who did that?"

"Selena did", Diana said.

"Wow, you're really good!", Mr. Fischer said.

Selena was usually quite confident, but I swear now she was blushing.

"Mr. Fischer, you didn't even bring an England flag!", I joked, "Don't tell me you're supporting Finland!"

He laughed: "No, I'm not supporting Finland! But not so much because of England, but because if Finland wins today, Germany won't have a chance to get qualified for the Quidditch World Cup anymore! And of course, I support my country!"

"Well okay, today we're on your side", I said, "but the next match will be Germany vs. England. And there, we're bitter enemies!"

My friends and Mr. Fischer laughed.

"Of course, I hope that England makes it too! But they are one of the best teams anyway, so I think you guys won't have to worry", Mr. Fischer said.

On five o'clock, the live commentator on the screen said: "And now, live from Helsinki: The National Anthem of Great Britain, please stand up, ladies and gentlemen!"

Every single person in the room stood up and sang along, then we watched the Finnish anthem and then the match started.

Cady and Rose said they would get some drinks and I took the opportunity and went with them. "I'm glad that there is no news from Glasgow yet", I told them when we were alone.

"No news is good news", Rose answered, "let's just hope it stays like this."

We arrived at the bar, which was always installed at the Hogwarts Great Hall for special occasions like this. We decided to get everyone a butterbeer, because everyone liked that.

One hour later, the atmosphere had cooled down a lot: It was 40 – 40, a boring and frustrating result, and the snitch was nowhere to be seen. Everyone was either chatting with their friends or just relaxing a bit, having some more cake or drinking another butterbeer. Some people had also left the Great Hall.

"Will we stay at least until dinner?", Rose asked.

"Yes, I will", I said.

Mr. Fischer said: "I have to go to my office and work a bit, excuse me. I'll probably be back later. It was nice talking to you."

Dinner was very nice, because all the houses were mixed and there was a big buffet next to the teacher's table. The buffet was full of delicious food: mashed potatoes, spaghetti with ten different sauces, lasagne, roast beef etc.

"Let's go for another plate!", Rose said after having finished her first one.

"You're a girl, you aren't supposed to eat so much", Daniel joked, but Rose apparently didn't find it funny at all.

"Are you kidding?", she almost screamed, "I can eat whatever I want!"

"Obviously, I was kidding!", Daniel replied, now angry too, "Oh my god, don't take everything so seriously…"

"You wouldn't find it funny either, if people talked to you like this every day", Rose said with a cold voice, "believe me."

Daniel didn't know what to answer, so Cady – diplomatic like always – saved the situation: "I'm sure Daniel didn't mean to offend anyone… And he's sorry, isn't he?"

"Sorry", Daniel mumbled.

"Okay, then everything is great again", Cady said, "how is the match going on?"

"I think they took a break", I answered, "the weather is pretty bad in Finland and they have been playing for about three hours now. But I'm not sure about the results…"

After a while, they showed the results on the screen: When they had started the break 15 minutes ago, England was leading with 100 – 70 and they were going to continue the match in another 15 minutes.

"I'm not going to stay until midnight!", Rose said, now smiling again, "not if we have to get up for school tomorrow!"

We laughed. "Let's hope Professor McGonagall is going to make a special announcement then", Selena said.


	17. Chapter 17

_Cadence POV:_

Our dreams got fulfilled when Professor McGonagall stood up at 9 pm and told us: "We have thought about this for a long time, but we came to a sensible conclusion: You all know how much I love Quidditch, so I think it's only fair that – if the match goes on for longer than until midnight – you won't have school tomorrow morning. Of course, the lessons in the afternoon will take place. Let's hope England wins this one!"

McGonagall received standing ovations for this statement, and then one student screamed: "And what if the match hasn't stopped tomorrow afternoon?"

McGonagall laughed: "Then we'll see. Good night, everyone!"

My friends and I were in a super good mood. "Let's go upstairs and take some blankets and make it comfortable!", Selena screamed.

"And let's hope the match doesn't stop at 11.59 pm", Amy said and we all laughed.

Some seventh years let some sofas fly in the Great Hall and made all the tables disappear except for one that they filled with desserts and tea, with the help of the house elves.

Meanwhile, I went to the Hufflepuff common room with Selena, Amy, Diana and Matthew. The girls and I took our make-up off and we all put on some more comfortable clothes. When we came back down, we joined Rose, Leah, Mary, Albus and Daniel on a big couch quite close to the screen.

"How's the match going?", Matthew asked.

"England scored one more goal", Rose answered, "nothing important happened."

Cuddled up in blankets and drinking tea or hot chocolate, we watched the match going on. Some fouls happened, some more goals were scored and England was still leading, but if the Finnish seeker Matti Järvi caught the snitch, they would still win. After a while, I got very tired and slept for about half an hour, leaned on Selena's shoulder. I woke up when there were screams.

Confused, I asked: "What happened?"

"They are about to catch the snitch", she said with an excited.

I looked at the screen, and saw the two seekers racing after the snitch. But they both weren't able to catch it. The Great Hall got quieter again and everyone calmed down.

I looked at the result: England was still leading, now with 240 – 160.

"What time is it?", I asked.

"It's ten to midnight", Selena said, "let's hope the match lasts for another ten minutes."

When we got closer to midnight, everyone counted down the seconds until the next day, then we all cheered: We weren't going to have school the next morning.

I took another hot chocolate and soon, I started sleeping again.

When I woke up again, it was 1.30 am and the match still hadn't ended, this time Finland was leading: 270 – 260.

"Hey Cady, how are you doing?", Selena asked me, "Would you rather go to bed?"

"No, it's fine. Were you watching all the time?"

"No, sometimes I was asleep as well."

I looked around me: There were less people in the Great Hall than two hours ago, and many of those who were there were sleeping or being very quiet; nobody was screaming or cheering anymore.

I watched the game for a while: It was clear that the players were tired, some had been exchanged, and one or two had been hospitalized already because of fouls on both sides. However, the audience in the stadium didn't seem to be tired at all: They were still screaming at every player who got close to making a goal.

To my delight, England scored two more goals in the next half hour and was now even with Finland. Albus brought us all some tea with sugar to wake us up a bit.

"This match is so boring", Selena complained.

"No, Quidditch is never boring!", Albus objected.

"Do you want to tell me you were never asleep during this match?", she asked.

"Well, I might have been asleep for half an hour or so but only because I've been awake since 7am and I'm very tired."

"Do you want to go to bed?", I asked Selena.

"Well, not really", she said, "now I have some energy again. What about you?"

"I don't feel like going to bed either", I said and smiled.

Because we both didn't feel like following the match with a lot of attention, we chatted for a bit. After an hour or so, it got interesting again: The snitch had been seen and suddenly, there was a lot of tension in both crowds: The one in Helsinki and the one at home, Hogwarts.

"The Finnish seeker is not very fit", Albus told us, "the commentator said that once. We have a good chance!"

"Good for us! Why don't they exchange him, though?", I asked.

"I think they don't have a better choice, I'm not sure", Albus answered.

Suddenly, people started cheering and I looked at the screen again: Both seekers were hunting the snitch, which was only some meters away from them.

We all got on our feet and cheered: "Come on, get it!"

Finally, the English seeker stretched his arm, reached for the snitch and caught it!

"England wins this game 470 – 310! That means that they are one significant step closer to the World Cup!"

The Great Hall exploded: Everyone was cheering, waving their England flags and some even created fireworks with their wands. It was 3am now and I felt like I had never been happier before than at this moment.


End file.
